Barbara Chung didn’t give up a workaday office routine to start her Palapala Designs woodblock print business three years ago.
She always has been a fine artist, she said, "always drawing and painting." She has helped people with colors, such as for interior design, and worked as a floral designer for weddings and in other artistic endeavors.
"I majored in fashion illustration and graphic communication," she said, a focus that would enable her to work in product design, packaging and the like.
"Back in the caveman days, we drew things by hand and had to wait for the ink to dry," she laughed.
Five years ago she got into woodblock printing, "and I just loved the medium," she said.
She explored it as a way to "celebrate Hawaiian culture" because "I felt like it was dying in our houses, in our communities."
She wanted to use Hawaiian cultural designs "in products we could use every day."
Everybody has pillows in their homes, so "pillow covers was where I started," Chung said. Then people started asking for table runners and drink coasters.
Those have become quite popular, and she now offers more than 20 different designs, she said.
In addition to home decor, though, customers wanted to carry her designs around with them, so she started putting her woodblock designs on clutches "the Hele Bags are really popular."
The Hele Bags are made of plain fabric in bold colors and are emblazoned with her Hawaiian woodblock print designs; their long straps can be worn across the body. They sell for $30.
Chung’s website displays her products including bags, totes and clutches; greeting cards; holiday ornaments; kitchen accessories such as aprons and tea towels; pillow covers in 18 designs; table runners and drink mats; T-shirts and scarves; and wall hangings and bed runners.
Prices range from $15 for a set of two drink mats to $70 for pillow covers, and up to $260 for the bed runner sets. All items are handmade by Chung in her Maui studio.
She prefers to print on cotton. She urges her customers to line-dry the pieces after washing, and it’s OK to iron over the print, she said.
She estimates that she has created 50 to 60 designs.
Your columnist asked her to choose a favorite, knowing it might be like asking a mother to choose a favorite child.
After some thought Chung identified the Ulu, or breadfruit design, as her favorite. "Ulu is really hard; it’s like, How am I going to get that fruit to look OK?’" she said. "I really like how it came out."
As with childbirth, her labors paid off. "It’s one of my most popular designs," she said.
Her website shares the Hawaiian legend of Ku, god of building and war, who turned himself into an ulu tree during a famine to feed his family. She tells of how the staple food came to the Hawaiian Islands, how it is prepared in various ways to provide sustenance, and other ways in which Hawaiians of old also used the tree.
Three years ago Chung focused her professional attention on her Hawaiian woodblock designs in a big way, signing up as a vendor for the Made in Hawaii Festival.
"I knew nothing when I went there," she said, and didn’t realize she’d need so many business cards for the three-day event.
"It was really good and people really responded," she said.
Before the Made in Hawaii Festival opens to the public, retailers and wholesale buyers are allowed to go through to check out the exhibits, and Chung got orders for her products her first time there.
"It was so amazing," she said.
Her presence at the Oahu festival also gained her entree to the Merrie Monarch Invitational Hawaiian Arts Fair, which is now another big annual event for her. This year’s is April 23-26 in the Butler Building next to the Civic Center in Hilo.
Chung’s website lists other craft fair and festival dates and times, but those who find themselves on Maui outside those dates can make an appointment to meet her in her studio and retail store in Kihei.
She said she feels blessed by her success.
"My repeat customers bring me food and hugs. I’m just so lucky,"Chung said.
WHERE TO BUY IT
Oahu
Native Books/Na Mea Hawai‘i, Island Treasures Art Gallery, Global Creations & Interiors
Molokai
Hotel Molokai
Maui
Kula Marketplace, Travaasa Hana, Lahaina Restoration Foundation
Hawaii island
As Hawi Turns, Four Seasons Resort Hualalai; Volcano Garden Arts
Kauai
Kauai Museum, On the Road to Hanalei, Style World
Palapala Designs
Kihei, Maui, 442-2894
palapaladesigns.com
palapaladesigns@gmail.com
“Buy Local” runs on Aloha Fridays. Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com or on Twitter as @erikaengle.
